'Let's get this house done Simmo': Downfall of dealer in plot to terrorise millionaire

A 'professional drug dealer' who was part of a plot to rob and torture a wealthy businessman has lost a bid to reduce his prison sentence. Wayne Simmonds joined forces with a Manchester-based organised crime group who discussed torturing an elderly man - including cutting his ear off or holding an iron to his chest - and posing as police officers as part of a £500,000 robbery scheme.

Simmonds, from West London, supplied brothers-in-law Gary Betts and Gerard Boyle and brothers John and Chris Sammon with cocaine, which they sold by using Openshaw-based recycling business South Manchester Plastics as a front. But unbeknown to them, the two portacabins at the firm were being bugged by the National Crime Agency.

Over the course of several weeks in early 2020, the detectives watched and secretly recorded the defendants arranging deals, weighing out cocaine, making payments and splitting the profits. And things took an even more sinister turn when Betts began discussing a 'nice job' that would bring the gang 'plenty of dough'.

It emerged the group planned to kidnap and torture a wealthy businessman from the Greater Manchester area who they believed would have significant amounts of cash in his home. The Mancs recruited Simmonds to assist them as he had criminal associates who could supply police uniforms to allow them to carry out a fake raid, a 2021 Manchester Crown Court trial heard.

The group were heard discussing torture tactics including cutting off the victim's ear, using a blowtorch on his testicles and pressing an iron on his chest. The target was a man aged in his 80s.

Over the May Bank Holiday weekend of 2020, the NCA decided it had to strike to prevent the robbery going ahead. The gang denied conspiracy to rob